


Sticks and Stones

by gleefulmusings



Series: Facets [15]
Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Genre: Gen, Missing Scene, Season/Series 07
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-13
Updated: 2014-06-13
Packaged: 2018-02-04 11:50:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 242
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1778014
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gleefulmusings/pseuds/gleefulmusings
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Xander returns home after the debacle in the vineyard.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sticks and Stones

So he was home, if this could be called home.

Didn’t feel much like one, not now, not for any of them, not even Dawn or Buffy. It was just a house. Whatever scent that had belonged to Joyce had long since evaporated, pulling with it any lingering trace of her gentleness.  
  
The others hovered; discreetly, but it was hovering all the same. Never out of earshot, knowing they were now out of his line of vision.  
  
 _So you’re the One Who Sees._  
  
He snickered wildly and felt the glances upon him. He just as soon dismissed them, knowing they probably thought the meds had made him crackers.

Maybe they had.

Or maybe he saw things more clearly than ever before.  
  
Willow flitted around him like a nervous bird. Dawn, when she was able to meet his eye, shot him looks of such heartbreak, he was forced to look away.

Giles couldn’t look at him, but tried to convey his love and support. Anya used sarcasm and rage to cover her fear and impotence, all of which was a thin veil to disguise her utter devastation.

Faith said nothing, for which he was grateful, but he knew her as well as he always had and knew she partly blamed herself.

Kennedy was the worst, though; she wore her guilt like a shroud and it was slowly suffocating him.  
  
Well-meaning people poking him with well-meaning sticks.  
  
Except for Buffy.

Her silence threw stones.


End file.
